Round 3 of the Formula Drift season was another great outing for Rome Charpentier, who finished second at the St. Louis event and now stands second overall in the championship points standings. Continuing his dream rookie season, the 33-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., faced one tough opponent after another with his Holley EFI-powered Imagine Garage BMW, starting with the M2 BMW of number 2 qualifier Donovan Brockway in the round of 16 and continuing right through the final.
Charpentier and Brockway went wheel to wheel in a duel too close to call, and when they squared off again to settle it, it was Charpentier who emerged victorious. That catapulted him into a quarterfinal showdown against Trent Beechum, the top-rated driver in the Formula Drift standings after three stops on the 2019 tour – Orlando, Atlanta, and now St. Louis.
Charpentier got the best of a fender-banging battle that, like his round-of-16 match with Brockway, was too close to call after the first go-round. For the following round against AJ Mass, Charpentier's team made repairs and he wheeled the beat-up machine to a third straight victory that put him in the final round against Alec Robbins.
In the money round, Charpentier's BMW was damaged to the point that he had to hold the steering wheel at the 3 o’clock position to make it go straight. Robbins took the win, but Charpentier still turned in a podium finish and now stands just five points behind points leader Trent Beechum for the championship lead.